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Minneapolis bridge funds held hostage in Washington budget battle

(AP) Just a day after President Bush vetoed their
top domestic spending bill, congressional Democrats drew nearer to
sending him one more, even though it faces an identical fate.
By a 270-147 vote, the House passed a bill that provides $195 million to replace the collapsed Interstate
35W span in Minneapolis and an additional $1 billion above Bush's
request to help states fix deteriorating bridges.

Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., and Rep. John Kline, R-Minn., voted against the bill containing the bridge money. The rest of the Minnesota delegation, except for Rep. Jim Oberstar, voted in favor of the measure. Oberstar is recovering from recent surgery and did not vote.

The measure provides $105.6
billion for transportation, housing and community development
programs. The measure, which the Senate probably will act on this
week, was $5.5 billion more than Bush's budget. It restored
administration cuts to Amtrak, community development grants and
housing programs.

The president has promised to veto the bill because it exceeds
his budget requests. That was the same reason he cited Tuesday when
he vetoed a health, education and job training bill that was almost
$12 billion more than he wanted to spend.
The House margin was eight votes short of the two-thirds that
would be required to override a veto. House Democrats were expected
to fail in a vote Thursday to override the rejected health and
labor measure.

Bush has taken a hard line with majority Democrats over
spending, promising vetoes of at least nine of 12 of the annual
spending bills that set agency budgets for the fiscal year that
began Oct. 1.

He issued a new veto threat on the transportation and housing
bill Wednesday. "Congress has failed to show a path to hold
spending to reasonable and responsible levels," according to the
White House. "This unwarranted spending puts a balanced budget in
jeopardy and risks future tax increases."

With Congress ready to leave town on Friday for a two-week
Thanksgiving recess, there has been faint progress on the budget
logjam, except for enactment of the Pentagon's budget. It is
looking increasingly likely that agreement on the annual spending
bills - the core responsibility of Congress - will drag into the
new year.

Democrats defended the latest spending bill, popular with
lawmakers for the money for highways, mass transit, federal aid to
airports, Amtrak, low-income housing and community and economic
development grants.

The measure also contains $250 million for counseling to help
homeowners threatened with foreclosure in the housing crisis. That
includes $200 million for nonprofits and other groups that help
homeowners with subprime mortgages avoid foreclosures and $50
million to counsel potential homebuyers about avoiding
foreclosures.

Many subprime borrowers are unsophisticated and are often
intimidated in their dealings with mortgage servicers. Nonprofit
groups such as the Association of Community Organizations for
Reform Now, or ACORN, and NeighborWorks America give advice and
often serve as intermediaries for borrowers requiring adjustments
to the terms of their loan.

Republicans criticized the bill for its 2,000-plus pet projects,
including money for bike paths, grants to local transit agencies,
new road and bridge projects, community centers and parks.

The money-losing Amtrak passenger railroad, a target of the
administration for excessive subsidies on long-distance routes and
other management problems, would receive almost $1.5 billion, $550
million more than sought by the White House.

The measure would block the Transportation Department from going
ahead with a pilot program giving Mexican trucks greater access to
U.S. highways. Supporters of the plan, including the
administration, say it would save American consumers hundreds of
millions of dollars.

Labor and driver-owner groups have fought the measure since it
was first proposed, saying the program will erode highway safety
and eliminate U.S. jobs.